Donna-alliums prefer full sun and a well drained, not too rich soil. They will grow well in a gravelly rock garden. Obviously, they are not too picky though. In my garden they grow in full sun and fertile, loamy clay soil. The "Ivory Queen" are quite short, 6-8" tall so are best located towards the front edge of a bed. The blooms are long lasting, about 4 weeks. The leaves fade away soon after so its best to plant something nearby that will fill in over the alliums as they begin to go into dormancy for the summer. I bought the original bulbs 10 years ago at a local nursery. I believe they are widely available now. Buy as many as you can afford! :) In a few years they will begin to selfseed and as they mature you can move them around. Plant them in groupings around the front of the bed; you could interspace with other short bulbs like snowdrops, dwarf daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths (if these bulbs grow in your southern zone?) perhaps some primroses with some larger perennials nearby whose foliage will cover up the empty spot from the bulbs when their foliage begins to look ratty and they go into dormancy. I grow hostas, delphiniums, balloonflower, lupines, tall sedums etc nearby In front of my greenhouse, I have planted a dense row of Allium aflatunense 'Purple Sensation'. As the foliage begin to discolour and fade away, the espaliered apple tree in front, leafs out and covers them up.

Excellent reports, enjoyed them! Hope things go well! Kind of bummed that you're moving, but hope you'll still seem right down the way, posting here & teasing us about your exotic new digs. Sure fed a lot of Begonia cuttings to pill bugs this year... inadvertently of course. Once they start eating it, there's no saving it though. Next year I won't put any Begonia cuttings in the ground during pill bug season. The ones that established before that and recovered from an unexpected frost are almost all still around. A few were then killed by flood. Then trampled by dogs... Sheesh! I need more shady spots out front, where it's safer. It's time here to take cuttings, I guess. Could have frost Fri night. Whatever stems in the ground look really good, tall enough, will probably snap 'em off and stick 'em wherever there's room - again. That will only take a few minutes, there's not much. Gaining more and more respect for wax B's. They seem to be tougher against all of this stuff in general, except floods of course. Potted plants were the only real 'winners' here. What a year!

Hi Bayard: Those are absolutely beautiful! I was looking at the Blackmore and Langdon tubers this past winter, but they were so expensive! You grew these from seed - I've never seen seed offered in the catalogues I get (in Canada); where did you order them from? And is it difficult to grow from seed? Thanks a lot for any info you can give! Judith

Hey Motezuma, Sorry to hear you have no local stores to pick up some of these begonias. Ace is a big surprise. I found out about this one last year, then they went out of business. Then someone opened it up again earlier this year and begonias come in much slower than the previous owner. The price has also risen from $5 to $7 for a six inch hanging basket and from $10 to $12 for a 10 inch hanging basket. I think it is still a very good deal. Just wish they'd get them in a lot faster. Need my fix, if you know what I mean, seeing how you crave them. Shame is that most of the local stores practically close their greenhouse operations in winter. Gotta make room for the same old Xmas junk. You may just have to start ordering via mail. The mail order growers for the most part are slow, have very small plants (shipping costs?), and sometimes pricey (I have bought bunches through the mail that cost more than what I have shown above and come in 2.5 inch pots to boot, I wonder what they would charge for a ten incher - $50 or more?), but if you have to have it, then this can work for you. Not all stores are slow or pricey, but most will be on the small side. Even small ones can grow quickly provided you give them what they need. One more tip - if you ever travel to an area where one of these mail order places are, you should plan on stopping by for an hour or so. You should be able to get a good collection going this way. The plants should be a lot larger as well and the price modest. Butch